Rounding out the 70s and just in time for Christmas as D&D is getting increasingly popular after the accidental publicity caused by James Egbert’s disappearance, TSR decided to replace the B1: In Search of the Unknown adventure that came bundled with the Basic Set, written by Mike Carr, with a new Gygax adventure… This also had the advantage of making Gygax more money instead of having to pay a percentage to Carr for each Set sold. But that’s a story that has been covered elsewhere.

As an adventure it’s an interesting one. For one thing it tries to be as neutral as possible in order to be able to fit into any possible campaign setting. It’s a Keep (no name) on the border lands between a lawful civilized world and a chaotic wilderness, there is not a single named NPC, although there are priests, castellans, major enemies and so forth. This is clearly purposeful and Gygax explains that the DM should fill this with details pertaining to the world that the DM has created. 

These are the days before campaign settings and DnD lore, the Greyhawk setting was still months away, and Gygax who didn’t understand why DMs would ever want to play other people’s modules also seems resistant (and he says so in some Dragon columns) to give DMs ready-made settings. So we have a keep, we have a wilderness with enemies and we have the creatively named Caves of Chaos, filled with warring factions of Orcs, Goblins, Kobolds, Bugbears and a hidden Evil Shrine to a non-descript evil god and some evil priests and undead. There’s lot of potential here for adventures if the DM takes their time with creating plots and backstories, and that is really a Gygaxian principle of using the game as a stimulant for the imagination not only of Players but also the DM. A great example of an introductory module.